This image features the north wall and floor of a polar pit in the southern hemisphere.

The pit wall is sculpted into a row of gullies. Gullies typically have a triangular start upslope, followed by a channel that transported material, and a triangular debris fan downslope. Polar pit gullies might be related to seasonal changes in frost coverage, but their exact origin is currently unknown. The gullies appear bright because they probably have seasonal frost on them.

The pit floor contains a field of dark sand dunes. Wind has transported sand across the Martian surface, and it was deposited in this pit and formed dunes. Some of the sand in the dunes might have come from the gully debris fans or other erosion of the pit wall.

The bright material within the dunes and along the floor is seasonal frost that is probably composed of carbon dioxide and water ice.

Written by: Kelly Kolb

All of the images produced by HiRISE and accessible on this site are within the public domain: there are no restrictions on their usage by anyone in the public, including news or science organizations. We do ask for a credit line where possible: Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona. The image data were processed using the U.S. Geological Survey’s ISIS3 software.